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I'm excited for a lot of teams this year. Share yours below so others can get enthused!

Burnley still look good for a HomeGrown challenge, and now have European football to attract better players. Not much more you could ask for really.

Wolves have signed just about every FM legend from Patricio to Moutinho, can you keep them in the Premier League? Worth playing just to have Neves.

Stoke / West Brom have both gone down so obviously make for good saves, and have managed to retain most of their good players unlike Swansea.

Juventus / Inter Milan are two teams I'm excited for, both making massive plays in the transfer market and both have very exciting squads.

Real Betis are another who have built a good team and it should be quite the challenge to grow them into a club worthy of challenging the big three.

Bayer Leverkusen is my go-to club for their talented young squad throughout, they desperately need to get back into the Champions League!

RB Leipzig have to prove they can survive without Naby Keita; can you take the job away from the clutches of Julian Nagelsmann before it's too late?

On a side note, Bournemouth have really let me down this window. They used to make for a fantastic HomeGrown challenge, with the main difficulty being replacing Ryan Fraser, but this summer they've signed so many foreign players that achieving full HG status in the first year will be almost impossible.

As a classic fallen giant (albeit they haven't fallen that far in the grand scheme of things) type of save this is a real obvious one this year with the change of ownership. Finances will be good, solid squad! A great opportunity for someone who has maybe dabbled with the bigger clubs in the game and wants more of a challenge, without making it too difficult for themselves

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The two I always recommend on FM18, Fiorentina and Real Sociedad, are both interesting teams to manage still. The former has added more quality with the likes of Pjaca and Mirallas on loan with options to buy, sadly Davide Astori no longer around but Nikola Milenkovic is looking like a future great. The likes of Gerson and Dragowski who were really great a couple of FMs ago are there as well (although given his lack of appearances I have no idea what Dragowski is looking like in the next one).

Sociedad meanwhile lost their best CB to their rivals Athletic Club in January and best RB to Real Madrid in summer but have added Mikel Merino and Theo Hernandez (loan) as well as having the ongoing Januzaj-aissance.

Spurs are a completely known quantity, which is an odd one for a PL side, what with their "historic" (since 2003) transfer window, but who knows whether the game will interpret that as lack of cash or Levy simply not seeing value in the market?

Nice also look interesting, Vieira's managed to keep Balotelli, and add Maolida from Lyon (one reason I wouldn't recommend Lyon, they've sold 2/3 the golden trinity of young attackers from this version, Geubbels being at Monaco, and so far only spent £2.2m) although they lost Seri and Plea for reasonably large sums there's still a solid squad there (as you may be able to tell by my recommendations, I like a team that could reasonably finish Europa IRL).

SD Huesca get a shout merely for it being their first season in La Liga too.

Hamburg meanwhile have been relegated for the first time in their history, so as well as their ever present status as a potential giant in the making (the closest you can get to Manchester United when Fergie took over really, in FMs from 2010-2018). A cursory wikipedia glance suggests they haven't actually lost many players, so quickly going up and getting a trophy behind your name could be quite fun.

Real Madrid would be my final recc, as "How Do You Solve A Question Like Ronaldo (being gone)?" is a fun save, and their squad has effectively just got younger and more Spanish whilst maintaining star quality in the likes of Bale, Isco. Still 10 days for Perez to shock us all though, and sign a World Cup star just like he always does.

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At the moment I'm half and half about buying it...but I know I probably will

I'll go for my usual though

Newcastle- as I support them

Inter Milan- again I'm a fan- transfer window was very productive- de Vrij, Radja, Lautaro, Vrsaijko,Balde- think another CF would be needed in there but not much work needed.

My French save in FM18 was Marseille which I kind of drifted away from and back to another Newcastle save after my last one had ended with me falling out with the board and sacked due to expressing interest in another job.

Always like to have Barcelona save too.

A South American save too is always a must for me after my glorious Flamengo save of FM11. Think I might go for a Colombian team this year

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I'm looking forward to once more being able to managing Altrincham again without having to wait for a lower league edit. As a Semi-pro team in what is increasingly even at Conference and the regional Conference level a pro game is interesting.

I've also go my go to Italian team in Cagaliri a good little yoyo club but with potential I find.

Any one of the 3 relegated sides in the Championship would be interesting for different reasons. Getting Stoke to play more exciting attacking football could be interesting, whilst proving West Brom were unlucky despite going down at the bottom of the pile is another challenge, Swansea meanwhile would be the hardest of the 3 to get back to the Premiership IMHO.

Elsewhere why not try to break the 'Guttermann Curse' with Benfica before the 100 year point (only 44 years left). Or breaking the Moscow clubs virtual stranglehold of the Russian league (only 3 non-Moscow based clubs have won the top Russian league since 1992)Zenit St Petersburg maybe your best bet there although Rubin may also make for an interesting save.

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I am looking at Koln for a first save. Relegated to 2.Bundesliga but kept some top experienced talents (T.Horn, Hector) and have a host of talented youngsters (Koziello, Mere, Ozcan, J.Horn, Guirassy, Nartey, Bisseck).

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As﻿ a classic fallen giant (albeit they haven't fallen that far in th﻿e grand scheme of things) type of save this is a real obvious one this year with the change of ownership. Finances will be good, solid squad! A great opportunity for someone who has maybe dabbled with the bigger clu﻿bs in the game and wants more of a challenge, without making it too difficult for themselves﻿

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Leeds could be fun, although you'd have to stop the Bielsa fun if you take over. They've started the season well but I've no idea what their players are like on FM, and they could be good for a youth dev save.

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Ashton United - Promoted to Vanarama National North this season. A small, community club that are one of the favourites to be immediately relegated back down to the Northern Premier League. They've had a lot of players leave the club, such as captain Josh Granite (Barrow), so it will be interesting to try and survive with them.

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Not really sure what save to do as I like to have an "attachment" to the side I'm managing, or at least ideally it be easy to develop one. I am a Derby County fan so have done those saves to death and kind of want to see what FM Frankie can do. I have also done a LLM save with my 2nd team Nuneaton Town, and don't want to repeat myself. I'm also a bit bored of doing the pick a team and try and win the UCL as my only goal. Has anybody got any ideas as to an interesting team to use which I could develop a liking to but not just plod along to European success? I would kind of like to do a journeyman save, but again just plodding from job to job doesn't appeal, I would need a goal or concept, such as managing the Red Bull sides one by one. Thanks

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Not really sure what save to do as I like to have an "attachment" to the side I'm managing, or at least ideally it be easy to develop one. I am a Derby County fan so have done those saves to death and kind of want to see what FM Frankie can do. I have also done a LLM save with my 2nd team Nuneaton Town, and don't want to repeat myself. I'm also a bit bored of doing the pick a team and try and win the UCL as my only goal. Has anybody got any ideas as to an interesting team to use which I could develop a liking to but not just plod along to European success? I would kind of like to do a journeyman save, but again just plodding from job to job doesn't appeal, I would need a goal or concept, such as managing the Red Bull sides one by one. Thanks

How about teams that have lost to Real Madrid in the CL / European Cup final?

If you did them in order it would be: Stade de Reims, Fiorentina, A.C. Milan, (Reims again), Eintracht Frankfurt, Partizan, Juventus, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid and Liverpool.

Right there you have 6 nations.

Or if you're like me and have only really done Europe, either MLS (bizarre American rules) or South America (lots of young talent, Sudamericana sounds a lot more fun than Europa League if you end up in the 2nd tier continental competition, if you're in Argentina or Brazil its incredibly easy to make a continental spot too). Argentina in particular has a weird mix of very young players (under 23) and very old (33+) players as all the peak players are in Europe, so unlike most leagues you could actually do allright with a squad of veterans. FM will probably still be trying to replicate their ever-changing league structure as well.

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For me it would be to delve into the Turkish second division (now officially known as TFF First League) and take any team on that league located in Ankara (that would be either Gençlerbirliği or Osmanlıspor, both just recently relegated) to eventually reach the top level and giving those snobbish big teams from Istanbul the regular spanking each year, letting them know that the capital city IS the best city in Turkey.

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im thinking either Sunderland,Salford or Portsmouth would be a decent shout to start with personally.What does everyone think?

Totally agree. Just started as Salford in FM18 (Conference North). Potenitially rich and ambitious with Peter Lim and Neville's, Butt, Scholes and Giggs as owners.

Sunderland is very tempting as very big club in 3rd tier. Ambitious and shrewd new onwer, Stewart Donald, who funded Eastleigh in Conference South and up to Conference National. Sunderland have big crowdbase but massive wages and rich primadonnas to coerse into action or ship out.

Have enjoyed having big clubs down in League 1 and 2 in recent FM's. Have managed Southampton in League 1, Portsmouth fro League 2 up to Championship and Coventry in League 2. Great challenges with ex Premier League clubs.

All the best with whoever you choose.

Personally I may skip FM19 if I can hang on in long term save with Salford.

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1860 Munich back in the game without adding a custom database, will probably make for a good challenge to get them back to the top league and try become better than their neighbours Bayern.

Particularly if you use their Oktoberfest kit!

Stoke City will probably be one of my first saves. They've still got some quality players. Butland in goals, the Welsh Xavi in midfield and if Berahino still can't score up top, there's always Peter Crouch!

Sunderland also look quite interesting as a big club at that level, more of a blank slate as I don't know as many of their players so won't feel bad about selling them.

Bringing Hamburg back up will also be a fun save. Re-establish them in the top flight and then see if you can actually win something. I'm also looking forward to doing the same with Deportivo La Coruna.

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I think a save as Southampton could be very interesting. Trying to get the best out of ings gabbiadini etc

well stocked with keepers and defenders so no work needed there. Perhaps a 442 with elyounoussi and ward prowse as wide midfielders and ings playing off either gabbiadini or Austin (or Callum Wilson if he can be poached)

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Hopefully my laptop can run FM19 because I'm looking forward to seeing if the current Everton squad could clinch a top 4 place with the likes of Richarlson, Mina, Gomes, Digne, Zouma - all exciting players (perhaps even try to convince Messi to swap the Costa del Sol for the River Mersey)

Also looking forward to playing as Juve with Ronaldo and Dybala up front in a good looking league - the Italian transfer window IRL was one of the best in a long time and I haven't really played much Serie A on the game. Could be very competitive indeed. (might be my only chance to see what Dybala is like in the game, he always seems to get passed over for a more immediate signing on my saves).

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1. Metalist 1925 (Ukraine) - new born team from Kharkiv, which continues traditions of old team Metalist. Just my local team, which I play in all FMs

2. FC Dnipro (Ukraine) - finalist of Europe League 2015 now plays in Ukraine Amateur League (4th tier) because of financial and license problems

3. FC Sochi (Russia) - renovated Dinamo SPb team, which was rebranded after moving to Sochi. Beautifull warm city, big modern stadium - all facilities to make a big club

4. Neftci/Sabail/Sabah (Azerbaijan) - long-term leader of Azeri football, which is having bad times now, or two new clubs from capital city with interesting squads and perspectives. Will be interesting, for sure.

5. Pyunik/Lori (Armenia) - Armenian championship was finally increased from 6 to 9 teams. Will be interesting for taking a team with big traditions (Pyunik) or a new club, which concentrates for signing young african players for re-selling.

6. Lokomotivi/Saburtalo (Georgia) - both teams are focused for developing their home-grown players, so they have good youth facilities.

7. Taraz (Kazakhstan) - also team with good history, had given many good players to kazakh football, now playing in second division and hoping to get their positions back.

8. FC Riga (Latvia) - russian owners solving a very hard task of making a big team in Latvia. And, IRL, they're close to the needed result.

9. Flora (Estonia) - playing for this team every year. Estonian championship is quite interesting and unpredictable. 3 ukrainian stars on loan will help to make a good performance.

OTHER EUROPE:

1. Feyenoord (Netherlands) - my favorite club for more then 15 years, so I've played for them every year since 2002

2. B36 (Faroe Islands) - also playing for them every season. I like this country and their football

3. Derby County (England) - also one of my favorite team for many years. But I don't like playing in England, so my saves for them are usually short.

4. Aris/OFI/Iraklis (Greece) - strong teams in past, two first are newly-promoted to the Highest division in season 2018 and third has promoted from Third division. So, it'll be interesting to get them higher.

5. Tromso (Norway) - the team from the biggest city beyond the Arctic Circle

ASIA

1. Paxtakor (Uzbekistan) - strong team, interesting big league and playing in Asian Champions league - I had some great saves for that team in the past

2. Persepolis (Iran) - same as above, but also better finances and reputation to sign star players and updating facilities

3. Istiqlol (Tajikistan) - leader of Tajik football, always having the best players in league, good foreigners - good chances to win AFC Cup and qualify to Champions league

4. Dordoy (Kyrgyzstan) - same as above, but harder. Also two advantages - increased league (now 8 teams) and some naturalised players from Germany, who are usually agree for transfer to Kyrgyzstan

5. Altyn Asyr/Kopetdag (Turkmenistan) - both clubs from very closed country, with full prohibition for signing foreign players. The first is young and ambitious and second shined in Soviet Union, was dissolved and renovated two years ago. The main problem is absence of real players

6. Qingdao Jonoon (China) - famous team, which plays in Third division now. It's interesting to get them to the top, there're much money, but imperfection of reputation system makes the task very hard

4. Costa do Sol (Mozambique) - I like this country, also , for example, it's possibility to make realistic transfers of portuguese/brasilian players

5. Green Buffaloes (Zambia) - now playing for them, very intertaining championship. 38 games (+ Cup), more then 100 points, more then 150 scored goals, final scores like 8:0 or 7:1 - I'd like to make it one more time in FM19

NORTH AMERICA

1. Las Vegas Lights (USA) - one more intertaining club with Freddy Adu in attacking line.

SOUTH AMERICA

1. Fuerza Amarilla (Ecuador) - just for beautiful name

OCEANIA

1. Auckland City (New Zealand) - also playing for them every year. Also a great possibility of participating in Club World Championship.

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1. Metalist 1925 (Ukraine) - new born team from Kharkiv, which continues traditions of old team Metalist. Just my local team, which I play in all FMs

2. FC Dnipro (Ukraine) - finalist of Europe League 2015 now plays in Ukraine Amateur League (4th tier) because of financial and license problems

3. FC Sochi (Russia) - renovated Dinamo SPb team, which was rebranded after moving to Sochi. Beautifull warm city, big modern stadium - all facilities to make a big club

4. Neftci/Sabail/Sabah (Azerbaijan) - long-term leader of Azeri football, which is having bad times now, or two new clubs from capital city with interesting squads and perspectives. Will be interesting, for sure.

5. Pyunik/Lori (Armenia) - Armenian championship was finally increased from 6 to 9 teams. Will be interesting for taking a team with big traditions (Pyunik) or a new club, which concentrates for signing young african players for re-selling.

6. Lokomotivi/Saburtalo (Georgia) - both teams are focused for developing their home-grown players, so they have good youth facilities.

7. Taraz (Kazakhstan) - also team with good history, had given many good players to kazakh football, now playing in second division and hoping to get their positions back.

8. FC Riga (Latvia) - russian owners solving a very hard task of making a big team in Latvia. And, IRL, they're close to the needed result.

9. Flora (Estonia) - playing for this team every year. Estonian championship is quite interesting and unpredictable. 3 ukrainian stars on loan will help to make a good performance.

OTHER EUROPE:

1. Feyenoord (Netherlands) - my favorite club for more then 15 years, so I've played for them every year since 2002

2. B36 (Faroe Islands) - also playing for them every season. I like this country and their football

3. Derby County (England) - also one of my favorite team for many years. But I don't like playing in England, so my saves for them are usually short.

4. Aris/OFI/Iraklis (Greece) - strong teams in past, two first are newly-promoted to the Highest division in season 2018 and third has promoted from Third division. So, it'll be interesting to get them higher.

5. Tromso (Norway) - the team from the biggest city beyond the Arctic Circle

ASIA

1. Paxtakor (Uzbekistan) - strong team, interesting big league and playing in Asian Champions league - I had some great saves for that team in the past

2. Persepolis (Iran) - same as above, but also better finances and reputation to sign star players and updating facilities

3. Istiqlol (Tajikistan) - leader of Tajik football, always having the best players in league, good foreigners - good chances to win AFC Cup and qualify to Champions league

4. Dordoy (Kyrgyzstan) - same as above, but harder. Also two advantages - increased league (now 8 teams) and some naturalised players from Germany, who are usually agree for transfer to Kyrgyzstan

5. Altyn Asyr/Kopetdag (Turkmenistan) - both clubs from very closed country, with full prohibition for signing foreign players. The first is young and ambitious and second shined in Soviet Union, was dissolved and renovated two years ago. The main problem is absence of real players

6. Qingdao Jonoon (China) - famous team, which plays in Third division now. It's interesting to get them to the top, there're much money, but imperfection of reputation system makes the task very hard

4. Costa do Sol (Mozambique) - I like this country, also , for example, it's possibility to make realistic transfers of portuguese/brasilian players

5. Green Buffaloes (Zambia) - now playing for them, very intertaining championship. 38 games (+ Cup), more then 100 points, more then 150 scored goals, final scores like 8:0 or 7:1 - I'd like to make it one more time in FM19

NORTH AMERICA

1. Las Vegas Lights (USA) - one more intertaining club with Freddy Adu in attacking line.

SOUTH AMERICA

1. Fuerza Amarilla (Ecuador) - just for beautiful name

OCEANIA

1. Auckland City (New Zealand) - also playing for them every year. Also a great possibility of participating in Club World Championship.

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Leeds could be fun, although you'd have to stop the Bielsa fun if you take over. They've started the season well but I've no idea what their players are like on FM, and they could be good for a youth dev save.

Will be Leeds for me, but the key as to whether I can get fully immersed will be the youth quality and academy. Hasn't produced players in the game good enough imo so hoping it's better - some absolute belters in the u23's at the moment.

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Ajax, for me. Excellent home-grown core in De Ligt/De Jong/Eiting/van den Beek augmented by shrewd signings such as Daley Blind (ideal for those who, like myself, play with inverted fullbacks), Dusan Tadic and Per Schuurs. Dolberg, Neres and Ziyech still on the books too whilst the Dutch leagues have several very interesting prospects who'd i'd expect to be rated with high potential in FM19 (Kik Pierie/Sepp van den Berg/Halil Dervisoglu). Potential for an excellent save.

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AUSTRIA VIENNA - Break RB Salzburg's recent dominance and then look to overtake Rapid Vienna as the most successful Austrian team of all time

KRC GENK - Focus on academy & youth scouting to win first title since 2010-11 and look to become first Belgian side to win Champions League. Academy products include KDB, Courtois, Origi, Benteke and Carrasco.

LITEX LOVECH - Won the Bulgarian top division as recently as 2010-11 but were expelled to the third tier in 2015. Now playing in the second tier, the challenge would be to gain promotion and then win the title for the 5th time before becoming the first Bulgarian team to progress to the Champions League knockout rounds

FC RED STAR - Gain promotion to Ligue 1 for first time since 1974/75 season and then look to overturn city rivals PSG's domestic dominance

PUSKAS AKADEMIA - Focus on youth to win first ever league title and then become first Hungarian team to qualify to KO rounds of Champions League

LAZIO - Bigger team than the others on this list. Aim would be to break Juventus dominance and win back to back league titles for first time in clubs history before chasing down AC Milan's 7 European Cups

GUIMARAES - Break the big 3 dominance in Portugal and win league title for first time in club's history before attempting to become most successful Portuguese side in Europe. Can use good youth facilities to develop youngsters to sell or play part in plans

VIITORUL CONSTANTA - Aim to use the great facilities in place to win back to back league titles with Gheorghe Hagi's team for first time in their history. Big challenge would be to match Steuau's European Cup win of 1986

DYNAMO MOSCOW - One of the oldest clubs in Russia, but hasn't won a top division title since the break up of Soviet Union despite spending 26 seasons in the top division of Russia

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Yeah, Bundesliga teams usually are good pick to manage as you try to familiarize with the new game mechanics because they're less restrictive in squad rules and most clubs got pretty solid setup from the start.

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I will be starting with either LKS Lodz as remember having a save with them years ago and are now back in the Polish league, or will be starting with Warta Poznan just because they have a rather attractive owner.

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I will be starting with either LKS Lodz as remember having a save with them years ago and are now back in the Polish league, or will be starting with Warta Poznan just because they have a rather attractive owner.